For those gamers who have stubbornly held on to Windows 10, the clock is ticking and time is running out, as Microsoft is officially ending support for its previous operating system in exactly one year's time. This means that PC gamers who haven't had the best success with Windows 11 will be forced to upgrade, one way or another.
It's safe to say that Windows 11 didn't exactly launch with fanfare to an audience of happy gamers. If you're looking for the best gaming PC, you're going to want the best performance, and Microsoft didn't offer that. Windows 11 shipped with divisive design changes, installation horror stories, reduced stability, and new hardware requirements that made recent hardware obsolete. Microsoft's battle for hearts and minds among gamers has been slow as a result.
If you're running Windows 10, don't panic, as you can safely continue using it for now. However, once the clock strikes midnight on October 14, 2025, Windows 10 will reach end of life status. After that date, it won't receive any new security updates or feature upgrades, and technical support will no longer be available.
That doesn't mean you have to stop using it immediately, but it will put your gaming PC at risk if you do so. As I reported last month, Windows 11 Steam adoption is now high enough to beat Windows 10, so it looks like the gaming community is already jumping ship to avoid this cut-off date.
There's a problem, though. Not every gaming PC is top spec, running with an Nvidia RTX 4090 and an AMD Ryzen 9000 series CPU. There are plenty of gaming PCs out there that are a few years old, happily running Windows 10 on older hardware, that lack the TPM 2.0 security chip that Windows 11 requires. For these systems, there's no official upgrade path available without replacing the hardware or using sketchy means to force Windows 11 to install.
Unfortunately, the argument against upgrading becomes weaker as we begin to approach the cut-off date next October, while the battle to convince Microsoft to bring official Windows 11 support to older (but still perfectly working) hardware has already been lost. Unless you plan on switching to a Linux-friendly platform, like the Steam Deck, for gaming, Windows 11 is going to be the only show left in town.
You've still got a year to plan ahead. If you can't upgrade to Windows 11, you might have to start planning for a new PC purchase. Thankfully, our best budget gaming PC shortlist lists some great options like the Acer Predator Orion 5000 that will happily run Windows 11 if you don't want to spend several thousand dollars on a brand new build.